America's Next Top Model

Anya has great features and a unique look. From a personality perspective, she's seemed to remain relatively under the radar, without too much friction or diva attitude. She also impressed Tyra in the posing challenge. However, despite her natural beauty and posing ability, she sometimes has trouble taking pictures with that special “wow” factor. She has a sort of sweet spaciness that could either charm the judges or could be something they decide to pick on. Also, Tyra Banks had made comments about the Hawaiian inflection in how she speaks. Now, Jaslene Gonzalez's somewhat unusual manner of speaking was never commented on during her season, but Danielle Evan's “country” way of talking was a constant bone to pick for Tyra. It's hard to know which way it will eventually go for Anya, but right now she seems to be in a good position if she can bring a little more pizzazz to her shoots and panel appearances. And if she gets some eyebrows.

Dominique. I can't believe we are down to seven models and I still have to seriously discuss Dominique. I generally try to not be too negative about any modelette because, honestly, the world doesn't need it, but just looking at things realistically, I just don't see a reason for Dominique to still be in this competition. Even though an America's Next Top Model doesn't exactly have the same standards as the real modeling world, I still don't think Dominique even meets those. Don't get me wrong: she's still prettier and more photogenic than the average person on the street, but model material? What she does have working in her favor is primarily her confidence, which can take a girl far. She also is not a bad walker.

Fatima is a bit of a puzzle to me. As I've said about fifty times, she is the one person who looks the most like a real-world model. Unfortunately, in her case, she looks a lot like ONE real-world model, Iman. And the thing that makes her look different from Iman, as Paulina Porizkova pointed out, is that her eyes are smaller, which can be a negative to the camera. In the last elimination episode, her photo was amazing, but she hasn't always excelled in her posing. However, she does have a sort of elusive quality, where – despite her kind of prickly attitude – she is somehow a magnetic presence and I wonder if Tyra might be likely to give her more chances than a girl like, say, Anya, who's performed possibly even a little better but is not so compelling in person.

Katarzyna has been quietly doing well throughout the show. She's not flawless, but she's had some good photos and she's undeniably beautiful. Is she not getting much screen time because she is, ultimately, expendable to the story arc for this Cycle? Or are the editors just letting her lie low while the more obvious “characters” create drama for the early season, and she'll emerge later once they've been eliminated? If she doesn't start getting some screen time, I think it's not a good sign: if she were to be a winner, at some point, the editors need to give us more of her in order to help us be invested in her win.

I've said before that I think Lauren is the Brittany Hatch or Brooke Staricha or Heather Kuzmich of this season. Namely, the girl whose transformation in front of the camera is the most fascinating and compelling, but whose struggles in the other areas associated with America's Next Top Model – the more spokesmodel aspects of the competition – mean it's just not possible she can ultimately win. These modelettes are invariably my favorites, but I just don't see Lauren breaking the pattern with her clomping runway walk. I hope she can just get into a good print modeling career.

It took until mid-season, but Stacy Ann, who I irrationally found annoying all season, finally won me over. I don't know what happened, but I suddenly found her cute and appealing. Have I just been manipulated by the editors?! No matter how I feel, despite her success with the go-sees, she didn't come out on top in the last elimination episode due to her weak photo. Tyra could have just been putting a scare into her, but it's a sign that she might have to really pull out a stellar photo in the next episode to claw her way back from the bottom.

Whitney's story arc has been a lot more uniformly positive than we have seen with our plus-size girls in the past. However, the fact that the show has chosen to edit in her back and forth sniping with Dominique doesn't really build the sort of positive Cover Girl persona you might expect from an ultimate winner. And is this show ready to have a plus-size winner? She's had some good shoots, but her go-see experience was a reality check that there are still big hurdles for a bigger model.

What do you think will happen this week?

- Leslie Seaton, BuddyTV Staff Columnist

(Image courtesy of CW)